Congress To Air Force: Look Into Buying More F-22s

Three months after the Secretary of the Air Force said resuming F-22 Raptor production was a "nonstarter," Congress is directing the service to look into doing exactly that. A key House of Representatives subcommittee wants the Air Force to study how it would go about buying another 194 of the high-tech jets.

The Air Force bought 178 Raptors for a total of $62 billion, ending in 2009. When he stopped the program, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the aircraft had no relevance in conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan. He also wanted to free up funds for what he considered more relevant programs, such as the Mine Resistant Armored Protection vehicle. The last F-22 was delivered in 2012.

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The drumbeat for Lockheed Martin to resume Raptor production has gotten louder lately, though, especially with the struggles of the F-35 programs. But just this January, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James rejected the idea of resuming F-22 production while speaking at a think tank event, stating "we've got what we've got" with regards to the fighter and that the F-22 and the F-35 would complement each another in the field.

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Now, the House Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee wants the Air Force to look into reopening the F-22 production line, and buying enough planes to fulfill the original order of 381 aircraft. Specifically, the bill would direct the Air Force to "conduct a comprehensive assessment and study of the costs associated with resuming production of F-22 aircraft and provide a report to the congressional defense committees, not later than January 1, 2017."

In 2010, the Rand Corporation projected that restarting the F-22 production line would cost $17 billion to produce 75 aircraft. Extrapolating from that estimate, it would cost about $42 billion to buy the required 194 planes to complete the original order, or $47 billion in 2016 dollars.

From a mechanical perspective, the Raptor absolutely could be restarted. Lockheed and the Pentagon saved the tooling for producing the F-22 and its engine, the F119, in case of emergency. More than 30,000 jigs, fixtures, and other pieces of manufacturing equipment key to building the F-22 are stored at Sierra Army Depot, a storage facility in the Sierra Nevada mountains. A series of instructional DVDs, were also produced and stored to instruct future engineers on how to build parts.

But an F-22 restart would need to clear considerable political hurdles. First, the Air Force civilian leadership apparently doesn't want it. Second, it would have to pass both the House and Senate as part of their respective defense authorization bills. Finally, the president would have to sign off on the restart.

Even manufacturer Lockheed Martin may not want in on this. If the Air Force were to purchase more F-22s, that would throw a monkey wrench into the F-35 program (which is also built by LM). If it were Congressionally mandated to buy more F-22s, then the Air Force would almost certainly order fewer F-35s, which would increase costs for all F-35 buyers, foreign and domestic. That in turn may decrease sales. And while some allied countries could be interested in buying the F-22 instead of the F-35—Japan in particular—the U.S. is barred by law from exporting the plane in order to protect its technological secrets. The bill specifically calls for the Air Force to look into exporting the F-22 abroad if the law were changed.

Anything could happen here, particularly if Russia and China continue to act aggressively in Europe and Asia. Despite the costs and hurdles, the fact remains that the F-22 is the only fully operational fifth-generation fighter out there.